Summer is a social season. By its very nature, it lends itself to impromptu gatherings, potlucks, and evening deck parties. With more guests in your home, the more likelihood that glasses will get placed on unprotected surfaces.

To make sure you're not dealing with surprise 'rings' on your furniture today where a cocktail rested last night, how about whipping up these stylish, practical and eco-friendly cork coasters? Just make sure you make enough to equal the number of guests!

DIY Double Take: The editors here at DIY Life also love the thought of extending this idea to fridge magnets. Reduce size to 2" squares, stencil on the alphabet, apply magnetic backing, and either place on the lower half of your fridge for the kids to play with. Or, situate them on the upper half for you and your spouse/roommate/partner to create clever messages with.

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There's a certain self-sufficiency and freedom to camping. Just grab your camping gear, hiking boots, first-aid kit and toothbrush, and it's time for adventure. Whether you're hiking to multiple campsites or are pitching your tent in one spot, you don't want to be laden down with too many food items. But, given the alternative, you also don't have to subsist on tasteless, freeze-dried meal portions.

With some advance planning and a little ingenuity, it's actually possible to feast on quite a spread, both under the sun and stars. Check out this helpful Howcast video below for a full line-up of hearty and delicious campfire cuisine. Our personal favorites are bannock and breakfast in a bag. Alliteravely speaking, we simply say: Brilliant!

Step 1: Get permission to make a fire

Check ahead to make sure you're allowed to have a fire at the place you're planning to camp.

Step 2: Bring along a grill

Consider grabbing the grate out of your toaster oven or off your backyard barbecue and stashing it with your gear. When you get to your campsite, just balance it between two rocks and you have yourself an instant barbecue grill.

Step 3: Pack cooking essentials

Pack a few things that are essential to cooking over an open flame-heavy-duty aluminum foil, tongs, and potholders or camp gloves. Don't forget the seasonings!

Step 4: Prep some veggies/make veggie kabobs (recipe 1)

Before you leave, prep some veggies for kabobs. Cut them into chunks big enough to stick on a skewer, marinate them in salad dressing, and seal them in plastic bags. At the campsite, just stick them on wooden skewers (or braches you've cleaned) and hold them over the campfire.

Step 5: Cook bannock (recipe 2)

Make the classic campfire staple, bannock. Mix together a cup of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. When you're ready to cook it, slowly add water until you have about half a cup of firm, sticky dough. Roll out a rope-like shape and wrap it around a skewer or stick. Hold it over a flame until golden brown. Serves two.

Step 6: Make pigs in blankets (recipe 3)

Make pigs in blankets. Prepare biscuit mix, wrap some around a hot dog, put the dog on a stick, and hold it over the flame until cooked, about 15 minutes.

Step 7: Make breakfast in a bag (recipe 4)

Make a complete breakfast in a paper lunch bag. Line the bottom with bacon strips - the grease will help protect the bag from burning - and then crack an egg or two on top. Fold down the top of the bag until it's about three inches high, and skewer this folded part with a stick. Hold it about half a foot above the coals for 10 minutes.

Step 8: Toast some cheese sandwiches (recipe 5)

Toast some cheese sandwiches by finding two sticks sturdy enough to squeeze a sandwich between them like tongs as you hold it over the open flame.

Step 9: Make your own hot pockets (recipe 6)

Wrap just about anything in heavy-duty aluminum foil-veggies, hamburger meat, thinly-sliced potatoes-and stick them directly on hot embers.

Step 10: Turn a rock into a skillet (recipe 7)

Find a large, flat rock that you can heat at the edge of your campfire and use it as a skillet to fry a steak or an egg.

Step 11: Extinguish the fire

When you're done with the fire, put it out with water. Stir the embers into the dirt until they are completely extinguished.

[via Howcast]

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Let me start by saying that I do not fancy myself a cook. I'll spend hours baking and letting dough rise, but when it comes to preparing everyday meals I'm always looking for shortcuts. I mean, aren't we all? So for this busy, single working mom, 'shortcut' usually means stocking up at the supermarket instead of making things from scratch. This is the solution I've come up with for now, while I keep busy juggling a rambunctious toddler and a time-consuming job.

But here's the interesting thing: While I don't consider myself a cook, I do consider myself a problem solver, a home scientist and economist of sorts, and I love a clever solution. Like I said, I'm a busy mom.

Which brings me to this: I've been taking stock of the simple pantry staples I use the most and I've wondered if it really is economically advantageous to make versus buy some things. I'm thinking of items like instant oatmeal, peanut butter, jam, applesauce, hummus, butter, pickles, crackers, and so on.

So, I've decided to put my curiosity to the test here in this column. My hunch is that if I've thought about this, perhaps you have, too. Each week I'll pick one food item, make it, figure out the cost, and then write all about it here -- complete with my 'DIY or buy' recommendation.

Okay, let's get started ...

Here's how this week's selection all came about: I was preparing to go to a Fourth of July party and I totally forgot that I was supposed to bring a side dish. I took a look around the kitchen and saw that I had a handful of small-to-medium-sized red potatoes, but they were too far gone for potato salad. Plus, there wasn't enough to make a good, big batch of it.

I knew I was going to make hummus (more on this below) because it's my typical 'side' to bring to parties, and I thought it would be great to make some oven-baked potato chips. But, ever the one looking for shortcuts, I wondered, "Hey, why not try these in the microwave?"

So, I'm going to skip ahead and just deliver the punchline first: I experimented and they turned out amazing! So much so, that I truly wonder if I'll ever buy potato chips again. So incredibly quick and easy! Here's a peek at how they turned out:

Don't they look rustic, gourmet, even expensive?

I can make a super-tasty product that's also inexpensive, and I know there are no preservatives in it. And, perhaps more importantly for me, this recipe yields a relatively small portion. Here's my little secret: I cannot buy chips and bring them inside my house, or I will consume the entire bag in one sitting. But, this recipe yields around 30-40 chips, so I see it as automatic portion control.

Click here for my 'recipe' -- and I use that word loosely because it uses so few ingredients. I also include my hummus recipe there.

I ended up making chips using the remaining five potatoes -- and that did take me another 30 minutes or so -- but I'd imagine that for my son and me, I'd make one-potato servings of this. Just enough for us to share as a snack or with our lunch. And, I know my son will eat these because, as my first taste tester, he proclaimed these 'nummy cackers.' (Translation: Yummy crackers, because anything crunchy is a 'cracker' to him.)

And for the record? Everyone ooh'd and aah'd when they realized the chips were homemade, in the microwave no less. Don't you love that feeling? Saving money, investing just a smidge of time, and earning your friends' admiration? Pretty priceless.

Here's a photo of the dynamic duo (before I nuked up the rest of the chips):

(Yes, I realize the tablecloth blends in with the color of the chips and hummus. Some may say it's boring. The artiste in me prefers to call it a monochromatic tablescape.)

The Rundown:

Microwave Potato Chips
DIY or buy?
Definitely DIY (though I'm sure I'll still buy on occasion because, hey, there's a time and season for everything)

I could sit here and figure out the microscopic costs of the potato (ok, I actually did figure it to be .085 cents), the dashes of salt and rosemary, the cost to run the microwave and so on. But, who has time for that? I think we can all see here that this is pretty much a no-brainer. Big cost savings + minimal time and effort = DIY success in my book.

I know I'll always continue to buy chips here and there, especially as my son grows. It's inevitable. But, I love that I now have this go-to DIY chip recipe in my repertoire, if only for the fact of how fancy and gourmet it's already proven to make me look!

And speaking of gourmet ... I've got company visiting at the end of the month, so I plan to make them some sweet potato chips and serve with a simple spicy aioli sauce.

Hummus
DIY or buy?
Definitely DIY

This one is a little easier to break down:

Store-bought hummus = $7.98 for 20-oz. container

19-oz can garbanzo beans = $1.19
3 T. tahini = .23 cents
1 T. honey = .05 cents
3 cloves garlic = .08 cents
3 T. lemon juice = .89 cents for one small lemon, which yielded me just over 3 T. juice
2 T. coarse salt = .05 cents
TOTAL: $2.49 (savings of $5.49)

For me, this is also no contest. This hummus took me less than five minutes to make, it tastes great, and it's much less expensive than store-bought. The tahini is a little bit of an upfront investment ($6.99 for 15-oz. container) , but once you've got it in stock it'll last you quite a long time. And, I usually throw an extra can or two of garbanzo beans in my cart when I find it on sale. I also keep lemon and lime juice in the fridge for those time when I don't have the actual citrus.

For more great hummus recipes, check out this page. I think I'm trying the roasted red pepper hummus next.

I'm curious to know: Have you tried any experiments like this on your own? I'm interested to know what you decided to DIY or what to keep buying, based on the cost and time investment.

Next week: Pickles!

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By Maureen Carter

It's summer and kids get bored. They want new things to play with and new things to do. Hey! How about playing in the sand. If you live in a landlocked state as I do, sand may be hard to find. So, why not make a sandbox?

Little woolgatherings has an awesome photo tutorial on how to make a sandbox in two hours or less. That means that in two hours your kids will have a new place to play and can quit saying "I'm bored!" for maybe two hours after that.

This look amazingly easy and fast especially if you are the DIY construction type. All you need are a few boards, tarps and sand. Check it out and make your kids an awesome new sandbox to keep them busy for a few extra hours this summer.

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With the official start of summer quickly approaching, chances are we're all spending a lot more time outside and putting our outdoor living spaces to good use. If your deck or patio isn't set up for high summer traffic -- or for lounging on lazy Sundays -- it doesn't take much effort or money to give it a quick, fun and functional update. (Read: It's finally time to ditch that white plastic lawn chair with the broken leg. You know who you are!)

Transforming an outdoor space is all about adding a few key touches that bring the interior style of your home to the outside, with a touch of whimsy. Seating? Check. Tables? Check. But don't forget the paper lanterns, string lights and candles.

And, if you're working with a small budget, you can literally bring the indoors out to create an inviting summer space. AOL's home decor expert Kelly Edwards shares her Trade Secrets:

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